Grant Morrison On The Mark Millar Question

The Mindless Ones blog has just completed an interview with Grant Morrison, over his new book Supergods, beset a little by speaker interference and a roadside cherry picker. But through the white noise came some elucidation.

“The S is a serpent and there is a Curse Of Superman…”

“There’s something quite predatory about the superhero ideal”

Oh and there’s the Julius Schwartz version of Elton John comic book series he’s written, that he’s waiting until Elton dies so he can publish it without legal issues.

But there’s something we were bound to cherrypick ourselves, and it sounds like Grant expected it too. The matter of Grant and Mark Millar, which the boys bring up and, as Grant recognises, often grabs the headlines. The industry has been aware of issue between Mark and Grant, previously writing partners and close friends, which seemed to come to a head over the authorship of an issue of Authority, but seemed to have many personal aspects beneath that.

In an interview with Mark Millar last the year, The Daily Blam asked Millar about any issues with Grant Morrison as his documentary came out. He told them;

I haven’t seen the documentary, so I don’t really know, but I hung around for a long time with Grant in the 90s. I haven’t really seen him in about a decade or something – he lives between LA and somewhere north of Scotland. There’s no enmity or anything like that. I always enjoy his comics, Grant’s always been good fun. I really like his stuff – there are no hard feelings whatsoever.

In the Mindless Ones interview, Grant is asked (around 23 minutes in)

“It seems like a massive reversal of cosmic justice that you’re writing a memoir and Mark Millar appears to be able to just walk into any room and make a film any time he wants to. Do you feel like there’s still a tension between you there?”

And he replies;

“There’s a tension between us based on past history, but not… what you say isn’t necessarily true, I don’t want to say bad things about people like Mark and anyone but yes Kick Ass was made, Wanted was made, there are no other films any more made than say Joe The Barbarian and We3 which are all in the same state of production with directors attached, with screenplays…

“Hollywood doesn’t work that way, you can’t walk in a room, and he doesn’t… you know I live in Hollywood, I live here four months of the year and I can know what goes on, there aren’t 200 million dollars films being made, what can I say… I don’t really want to say… I don’t want to come out against somebody who will see it as an attack, it’s all too easy to do.

“Mark has to make a certain smoke screen of himself, to look a certain way you know. Look at sales of Ultimates Comics Ultimates Vs Ultimate Avengers… that’s what it’s all about right now…

“I wish him well but there’s not good feeling between myself and Mark for many reasons most of which are he destroyed my faith in human fucking nature.”

We don’t get any more details, and I don’t expect any are forthcoming, but it seems as if that enmity is still on. Supergods is published very very soon.